Toledo, OH Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Regulation No. 2-57 of the Toledo District Board of Health, adopted June 26, 1985, governs rodent control citywide. Section 2 requires every building erected after the regulation's effective date, and every alteration, addition, extension, enlargement or repair to it, to be ratproofed and kept in that condition. Section 3 extends the same duty to existing buildings and to vacant or unimproved property, which must be kept free of rat harborage at all times, placing responsibility squarely on the property owner. Section 4 requires that building material, lumber, boxes, cartons, barrels, bottles, cans, machinery, junk and similar items that could shelter or feed rats be stored or handled in a manner approved by the Health Commissioner.

Section 5 obligates occupants -- and owners in multi-unit buildings -- to immediately start rat eradication measures once infestation is found, and to keep those measures going until the Commissioner declares the property free of rats. Section 6 bars any building or part of one from being used to store, process, prepare, manufacture or sell food unless it is free of vermin and rodents. Section 7 makes it unlawful for an owner, occupant, contractor, or utility worker doing repairs or installing wires, conduits or pipes to remove ratproofing without restoring it, or to cut new unratproofed openings.

48, and the regulation defines 'ratproof' construction as sealing every opening in foundations, walls, floors, roofs and sidewalk gratings against rat ingress with gnaw-resistant material.